Impact of comprehensive smoking cessation training of practitioners on patients' 6-month quit outcome

Impact of comprehensive smoking cessation training of practitioners on patients' 6-month quit outcome

Objectives
Smoking remains a leading public health issue and health care practitioners (HCPs), who play an important role in supporting and promoting patients’ cessation efforts, need educational initiatives that improve their ability to provide effective clinical care. The objective of this study was to compare patient-reported abstinence from smoking following treatment by HCPs trained in an intensive tobacco cessation program and those trained in less intensive programs.

Methods
A secondary data analysis of two overlapping samples of patients who received most of their treatment from one identifiable HCP (n = 26,590) or all of their treatment from one identifiable HCP (n = 20,986) was assessed. Patients were residents of Ontario, Canada, who enrolled in a publicly funded smoking cessation treatment program between 01 May 2014 and 31 October 2016 and completed the 7-day point prevalence of smoking question at 6-month follow-up. Treatment was provided by HCPs who engaged in the intensive Training Enhancement in Applied Counselling and Health (TEACH) Core course, or those who engaged in one or more other training programs. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) logistic regression was used to compare smoking abstinence between groups.

Results
After adjustment for both patient- and practice-level covariates, a significant association was found between being treated by a TEACH-trained HCP and the likelihood of smoking abstinence at 6-month follow-up in both analytic samples (most care sample: OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.20; all care sample: OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.24).

Conclusion
Implementation of comprehensive cessation training to support HCP delivery of smoking cessation treatment should be considered to improve patient outcomes.